Cape to Cairo

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In 1870, Africa by and large still belonged to the Africans; more than nine-tenths of the continent was ruled in one fashion or another by the natives. Within thirty years, this proportion was reversed. The entire continent had been opened up, quarreled over, and parceled out among European powers... The discovery of the Kimberley diamond fields, the emergence of the South African Republic with its Witwatersrand gold field and its mushroom city Johannesburg, the Boer War, the building of the Suez Canal, with their concomitants of fabulous fortunes and equally fabulous defeats and bankruptcies are woven into an engrossing story peopled by men of sound or crazy courage and told with great spirit, elegance, and skill.